This week we have our first sneak peek at "ValiDrive" the freeware I decided to quickly create to allow any Windows user to check any of their USB-connected drives. There's been another sighting of Google's Topics API; where was that? Has Apple actually decided open their iPhone to researchers? And what did some quite sobering research reveal about our need to absolutely trust each and every browser extension we install... and why was that sort of obvious in retrospect? We're then going to entertain some great feedback from our amazing listeners before we conclude by looking at the exclusive club which Apple's just-declared membership made complete.

This week we have a really wonderful picture of the week in the form of a techie "what we say" and "what we mean" counterpoint. So we're going to start off spending a bit of time with that. Then we're going to see whether updating to that latest WinRAR version might be more important than was clear last week. And while HTTPS is important for the public Internet, do we need it for our local networks? What about using our own portable domain for eMail? Does Google's new Topics system unfairly favor monopolies? If uBlock Origin blocks ads why does it also need to block Topics? Just how narrow (or wide) is Voyager 2's antenna beam and what does 2 degrees off-axis really mean? Do end users need to worry about that wacky Windows time setting mess? And what's the whole story about Unix time in TLS handshakes? What can be done about fake mass storage drives flooding the market? And finally, let's look at man-in-the-middle attacks. How practical are they and what's been their history?

Which Linux distro is selling itself to private equity capital and what could possibly go wrong? Will Android soon be talking to the sky? What's up with the trouble SanDisk and Western Digital are in over their SSDs? Are children still being tracked on YouTube's "made for kids" channels? Has cryptocurrency become any safer and what dangers are posed by the use of multi-party wallets? Is FIDO2 ready with post-quantum crypto? What's the latest on HTTPS by Default? And after looking at some feedback from our terrific listeners, we're going to examine the nature of heuristic programming algorithms with a case study in what can go wrong.

Today, we have a birthday to celebrate. And then I wound up encountering so many interesting thoughts shared by our terrific listeners that once I had written everything that I wanted to say regarding the emergence of Google's long-awaited Topics system to replace tracking, while still giving advertisers what they need, I'd filled up 18 pages of show notes and ran out of space for other news. So next week I'll catch up with everything else that's been happening. But the topic of Topics is, I think, important enough to have most of a podcast for itself!

What was it that also just, last week, happened with Voyager 2? What did Tenable's CEO Amit Yoran have to say about Microsoft's security practices? And what did Bruce Schneier have to say about the recent attack on Azure by Chinese hackers? There's more to AI than ChatGPT. What did some academic researchers in the UK accomplish by adding new deep learning modeling to a classic and previously weak attack? And after discussing some interesting listener feedback from the prior week, we're going to revisit a topic we covered when it was young because it's beginning to show signs that it might have a life of its own and may not be destined to fall by the wayside, as all brokers of personal information would hope.

It turns out that Advanced Persistent Threats have been leveraging satellite communications for many years. We start by looking at that. Then we'll find out what the next iOS release will be doing to further thwart device tracking. What new feature is Android 6+ releasing? What's the latest on the forthcoming 7th branch of the U.S. military? Why has Russia suddenly criminalized open source contribution? And what do we learn from VirusTotal's 2023 "malware-we've-seen" update? Then, after we share some of the terrific podcast-relevant feedback received from our amazing listeners following last week's second satellite insecurity podcast, we're going to examine one of the revelations to be detailed during next week's Blackhat hacking conference in Las Vegas.

What did Apple recently say to the UK? What's Google's "Web Environment Integrity" and why's it so controversial? Who's the latest to express unhappiness over Google Analytics? What happy news did the UK deliver about IoT security that the U.S. not done so far? Might you be qualified to join the U.S.'s forthcoming Expeditionary Cyber Force? What's the latest on ransomware attack payouts and also on the Massive MOVEit maelstrom? And who's the most recent major player to announce the adoption of Passkeys? Once we all have the answers to those questions, we've going to spend some time with our faithful listeners, then wrap up this Part 2 of our look at the current and quite distressing state of satellite insecurity.

What did Kaspersky have to say about last Tuesday's Microsoft patch event, and what security consequences does it have for all non-subscribing Microsoft Office users? What was inevitably going to happen once the power of Large Language Model generative AI became widely appreciated and available? What does it mean that Microsoft just revoked more than 100 malicious Windows drivers? What two new well-known companies have been added to Clop's MOVEit file transfer victim list? What does Dun & Bradstreet have to do with Android Apps? Where in the world can you use Meta's new Threads service, and where not? And what's a side effect of bitcoin addresses looking like gibberish? And after we examine those questions, cover some miscellany and user feedback, we're going to turn our attention to the heavens in recollection of those famous words of Henny Penny.

Could it be that yet another SQL injection flaw was found in the MOVEit Transfer system, and what more has been learned about last month's widespread attacks? What's a "Rug Pull"? What horrible conduct was the popular Avast AV found to be engaging in? Did China actually create their own OS? Version 1 is out! How many times can we say "TootRoot" while covering one story? What's the controversy surrounding the recent release of Firefox 115? Did Russia just successfully disconnect itself from the Internet? What are modern Internet honeypots discovering? How much of your life savings should you transfer into online cryptocurrency exchanges? (Okay, that's an easy one.) What did EU agencies just rule against Meta and Google? What happened to Apple's quickly withdrawn Rapid Security Response update? And after a bit of miscellany and listener feedback, we're going to look at the return of Rowhammering for the purpose of creating indelible fingerprints.

Today's podcast is chock full of news. What has DuckDuckGo just announced? What about the Tor Project? Has Opera just made a big mistake? What is the KasperskyOS? What's happening to non-Russian web hosting for Russians? Are SolarWinds executives finally going to be held to account? We now have the US Space Force, what's next? What's the latest large site to support Passkeys? Who would like permission to spy on their own citizens? Which facial recognition smartphone unlocking can you trust and which should not be? And what was the inevitable shoe to drop following last week's coverage of the Massive MOVEit Transfer mess? Then, after sharing a bit of listener feedback, we're going to take a much closer look into Kaspersky's discovery of a pervasive 4-year iPhone spyware campaign.

This week, two big stories dominate our podcast. We start by taking a quick look back at last week's Microsoft Patch Tuesday. Then we examine the latest surprising research to emerge from the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. What these guys have found this time is startling. Then, after sharing some feedback from our listeners and a long-awaited big SpinRite milestone announcement, we're going to spend the rest of our available time examining the story behind this month's massive cyber-extortion attack which is making all of the recent headlines and causing our listeners to tweet: "I'll bet I can guess what you're going to be talking about this week." Yes, indeed.

This week we examine what happens to your monthly cloud services bill if you're infected by cryptomining malware? And speaking of cloud services, is Elon paying his bills? Just how fast are IoT-based DDoS attacks rising? What was the strange tale of wayward Chinese certificate authority? What useful new privacy and security features will Apple be adding to their services with their net OSes this fall? And why has France headed in another direction? How does Russia feel about foreign Internet probes and what can they do about it? And after a bit of miscellany, listener feedback and a SpinRite update, we're going to take a deep dive into the backstory and current capabilities of the Internet's premiere scanning and indexing service: Censys.